Remarkably Bright Creatures High and Dry—The Very Low Tide Summary & Analysis

Summary

High and Dry

Cameron storms into the aquarium just as Tova is finishing up work. Tova scolds him for not coming into work, but realizes he is upset and asks why. Cameron begins to rant about his bad luck and difficult life; he tells Tova that his girlfriend is ghosting him and that Brinks is not his father, among other things. He then takes the class ring that reads ‘EELS’ and drops it into the wolf eel tank before Tova can get a good look at it, telling her that he’s leaving Sowell Bay for California. Tova is shocked and angry that he plans on leaving without giving Terry any notice, and Cameron scribbles a note to leave on Terry’s desk. Tova is disappointed in him, telling him he is better than this, and Cameron denies it before leaving.

Day 1,361 of My Captiv—Oh, Let Us Cut the Shit, Shall We? We Have a Ring to Retrieve.

Marcellus recounts the events that led to his capture; he was attacked by wolf eels and left too wounded to escape before being “rescued” and brought to the aquarium. He is now close to death, but gathers his strength and courage to enter the wolf eel tank to retrieve the class ring that Cameron had dropped into it. He returns to his tank, exhausted but planning to make one last trip.

A Goddamn Genius

Cameron is pulled over on the side of the freeway, trying to replace the serpentine belt on his van, which has finally snapped. He feels humiliated for failing even to run away from Sowell Bay, but is determined to change the belt himself. Propping up his phone on the bumper, he pulls up a video on how to fix it, thinking to himself that he should start acting like the genius he is.

The Eel Ring

Janice and Barb arrive at Tova’s house before her last shift at the aquarium with a farewell cake. Tova tells them about her struggle to find a place for Cat to live, and she and Janice convince Barb to take care of him before eating cake for supper.

On her last shift at the aquarium, Tova misses Cameron. She finishes cleaning and says goodbye to each animal one by one before arriving at Marcellus’s tank, where she finds the new octopus has been installed in his place; Tova takes this to mean Marcellus has died, and cries a single tear. Defeated, she drops her key card on Terry’s messy desk and begins to leave. As she's walking out, though, she finds Marcellus on the floor. He has been out of water too long and is nearly dead. She fills her mop bucket with water and lifts him into it, saving him. Once he is safe, she sees the class ring Cameron had dropped into the wolf eel’s tank on the floor where Marcellus had lain. Picking it up she is shocked, identifying the ‘EELS’ engraving as the initials of Erik’s full name.

The Very Low Tide

Tova puts the clues together; she realizes that Cameron is indeed her grandson, and that Marcellus had known it all along. She lets her grief overtake her, and sobs next to the mop bucket for a long time. When she is done crying she rolls the mop bucket containing Marcellus out to the jetty, planning to return him to the ocean before his death. Before releasing him, Tova thanks him for leading her to Cameron, and says that Marcellus has saved her. She tips the bucket out over the ocean, and Marcellus wraps a tentacle around her arm in farewell, letting go as he falls into the water.

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